Seem'd all one mutual cry. I never heard
So musical a discord, fuch fweet thunder.

Thef. My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind,
So flew'd, fo fanded, and their heads are hung
With ears that sweep away the morning dew;
Crook-knee'd, and dew-lap'd, like Theffalian bulls;
Slow in purfuit, but match'd in mouth like bells,
Each under each. A cry more tuneable

Was never hallo'd to, nor cheer'd with horn,
In Creet, in Sparta, nor in Theffaly:

Judge, when you hear. But foft, what nymphs are these?
Ege. My lord, this is my daughter here asleep,
And this Lyfander, this Demetrius is,

This Helena, old Nedar's Helena;

I wonder at their being here together.

Thef. No doubt, they rose up early to observe The Rite of May; and hearing our intent, Came here in grace of our folemnity.

But fpeak, Egeus, is not this the day,

That Hermia fhould give answer of her choice?
Ege. It is, my lord.

Thef. Go bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns.

proceeds than from Fountains: but as we have the Authority of the Antients for Lakes, Rivers, and Fountains returning a Sound, I have been diffident to disturb the Text. To give a few Inftances, that occur at prefent.

Ovid Metam. 1. 3. ver. 500.

Ultima Vox folitam fuit hæc Spectantis in undam,
"Heu fruftrà dilecte puer!" totidemq; remifit

Verba lacus.

For fo Burmann has corrected it: the common Editions have locus,
Virgil Æneid: 12. verf. 886,

Tum verò exoritur Clamor, ripaque lacufque

Refponfant circà, & cælum tonat omne tumultu. Aufon. in Mosellâ. verf. 167.

-adftrepit ollis

Et rupes, & fylva tremens, & concavus Amnis.
And again, verf. 296.

Refonantia utrimque
Verba refert, mediis concurrit fluctibus Echo.
Propert. lib. 1. Eleg. 20. verf. 49.

Cui procul Alcides iterat refponfa; fed illi
Nomen ab extremis fontibus aura refert.

VOL. I.

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Horns

Horns, and Shout within; Demetrius, Lyfander, Hermia, and Helena, wake and start up.

Thef. Good morrow, friends; Saint Valentine is paft:
Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?
Lys. Pardon, my lord.

Thef. I pray you all, ftand up:

I know, you two are rival enemies.
How comes this gentle concord in the world,
That hatred is fo far from jealoufie,

To fleep by hate, and fear no enmity?
Lyf. My lord, I fhall reply amazedly,
Half fleep, half waking. But as yet, I swear,
I cannot truly fay how I came here:
But as I think, (for truly would I speak,)
And now I do bethink me, fo it is;

I came with Hermia hither. Our intent
Was to be gone from Athens, where we might be
Without the peril of th' Athenian law.

Ege. Enough, enough; my lord, you have enough; I beg the law, the law upon his head:

They would have ftoll'n away, they would, Demetrius, Thereby to have defeated you and me;

You, of your wife; and me, of my confent;

Of my confent, that the fhould be your wife.

Dem. My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth,
Of this their purpose hither to this wood;
And I in fury hither follow'd them ;
Fair Helena in fancy following me:

But, my good lord, I wot not by what power,
But by fome power it is, my love to Hermia
Is melted as the fnow; feems to me now
As the remembrance of an idle gaude,
Which in my childhood I did doat upon:
And all the faith, the virtue of my heart,
The object and the pleasure of mine eye,
Is only Helena. To her, my lord,
Was I betrothed ere I Hermia faw;
But like a fickness did I loath this food;

But,

But, as in health come to my natural taste,
Now do I wish it, love it, long for it;
And will for evermore be true to it.

Thef. Fair lovers, you are fortunately met:
Of this difcourfe we fhall hear more anon.
Egeus, I will over-bear your will;
For in the temple, by and by with us,
These couples fhall eternally be knit;
And for the morning now is fomething worn,
Our purpos'd hunting fhall be fet aside.
Away, with us to Athens; three and three,
We'll hold a feaft in great folemnity.

Come, Hippolita.

[Exe. Duke, Hippol. and Train. Dem. These things feem fmall and undiftinguishable, ike far-off mountains turned into clouds.

Her. Methinks, I fee these things with parted eye; When every thing feems double.

Hel. So, methinks;

And I have found Demetrius like a Gemell, (27)

(27) And I have found Demetrius like a jewel,

Mine

Mine own, and not mine orun.] Hermia had faid, Things ap pear'd double to her. Helena fays, So, methinks; and then fubjoins, Demetrius was like a Jewel, her own and not her own, According to common Sense and Conftruction, Demetrius is here compar'd to fomething that has the Property of appearing the fame, and yet not being the fame: and this was a Thought natural enough, upon her declaring her Approbation of what Hermia had faid, that every thing feems double. But now, how has a Jewel, or any precious Thing, the Property, rather than a more worthlefs one, of appearing to be the fame and yet not the - fame? This, I believe, won't be easily found out. I make no doubt therefore, but the true Reading is;

And I have found Demetrius like a Gemell,

Mine own, and not mine own.

from Gemellus, a Twin. For Demetrius acted that Night two fuch different Parts, that she could hardly think him one and the fame Demstrius: but that there were two Twin-Demetrius's to the acting this Farce, like the two Socia's. This makes good and pertinent Senfe of the Whole; and the Corruption from Gemell to Jewel was fo eafy from the fimilar Trace of the Letters, and the Difficulty of the Tranfcri bers underflanding the true Word, that, I think, it is not to be queftion'd. Mr. Warburton.

If fome over-nice Spirits fhould object to Gemell wanting its Authorities as an English Word, I think fit to obferve, in Aid of my Friend's fine Conjecture, that it is no new Thing with Shakespeare to coin and

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enfran

Mine own, and not mine own.

Dem. It feems to me,

That yet we fleep, we dream. Do not you think,
The Duke was here, and bid us follow him?
Her. Yea, and my father.

Hel. And Hippolita.

Lyf. And he did bid us follow to the temple.

Dem. Why then, we are awake; let's follow him; And, by the way, let us recount our dreams. [Exeunt.

As they go out, Bottom wakes.

Bot. When my cue comes, call me, and I will anfwer. My next is, Moft fair Pyramus hey, ho,Peter Quince, Flute the bellows-mender! Snowt the tinker! Starveling! god's my life! ftoll'n hence, and left me afleep? I have had a most rare vifion. I had a dream, paft the wit of man to fay what dream it was man is but an afs, if he go about to expound this dream. Methought I was, there is no man can tell what. Methought I was, and methought I had,-But man is but a patch'd fool, if he will offer to say what methought I had. The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not feen; man's hand is not able to tafte, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report what my dream was. I will I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream; it shall be call'd Bottom's Dream, because it hath no bottom; and I will fing it in the latter end of a play before the

enfranchize Words fairly deriv'd; and fome fuch as have by the Grammarians been call'd ära λeyouwa, or Words used but once. Again, tho' Gemell be not adopted either by Chaucer, or Spenfer; nor acknowledg'd by the Dictionaries; yet both Blount in his Gloffography, and Philips in his World of Words have Geminels, which they interpret Twins. And lastly, in two or three other Paflages, Shakespeare uses the fame Manner of Thought. In the Comedy of Errors, where Adriana fees her Husband and his Twin-brother, the fays;

I fee two Husbands, or my Eyes deceive me.

One of them, therefore, feem'd to be her own, but was not. And in his Twelfth night, when Viola and Sebaftian, who were Twins, appear together, they bear fo ftrict a Refemblance, that the Duke cries;

One Face, one Voice, one Habit, and two Perfons;

A natral Perspective, that is, and is not.

Duke;

Duke; (28) peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I fhall fing it after Death.

SCENE changes to the Town.

[Exit.

Enter Quince, Flute, Snowt, and Starveling.

Quin. Have you fent to Bottom's house? is he come

yet?

Star. He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt, he is transported.

Flute. If he come not, then the play is marr'd. It goes not forward, doth it?

Quin. It is not poffible; you have not a man, in all Athens, able to difcharge Pyramus, but he.

Flute. No, he hath fimply the best wit of any handy-craft man in Athens.

Quin. Yea, and the best perfon too; and he is a very paramour for a fweet voice.

Flute. You must say, paragon; (29) a paramour is (God bless us!) a thing of naught.

Enter Snug.

Snug. Masters, the Duke is coming from the temple, and there is two or three lords and ladies more

(28) Peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I shall fing it at her Death.] At her Death? At whofe? In all Bottom's Speech there is not the least mention of any She-Creature, to whom this Relative can be coupled. I make not the leaft Scruple, but Bottom, for the fake of a Jeft, and to render his Voluntary, as we may call it, the more gracious and extraordinary, faid;- I shall fing it after Death. He, as Pyramus, is kill'd upon the Scene; and fo might promife to rise again at the Conclufion of the Interlude, and give the Duke his Dream by way of Song. The Source of the Corruption of the Text is very obvious. The fin after being funk by the vulgar Pronunciation, the Copyift might write it from the Sound, ater: which the wife Editors not understanding, concluded, two Words were erroneously got together; fo fplitting them, and clapping in an b, produced the prefent Reading at ber.

[29] A Paramour is (god bless us) a thing of nought.] This is a Reading, I am fure, of Nought. My Change of a fingle Letter gives a very important Change to the Humour of the Paffage. A Thing of naught, means, a naughty Thing, little better than downright Bawdry. So, in Hamlet, Ophelia, when He talks a little grossly to her, replies; You're naught, you're naught, my Lord; &c.

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married;